Thanksgiving is all about spending time with family. The Bergers came through Grandma’s house in waves bringing laughter, hugs, and the joyful plunking of Christmas carols on the piano. It’s amazing how full the Maumee house feels when a few families are visiting and Grandma’s smile was beaming with love to see the extended family together. 

While we didn’t get to see everyone on the Berger family tree, we were grateful for the conversations we shared with those who were there. My little cousins Noah, Leah, and Hannah are truly growing up in the world and Uncle Phil loved chatting up sports with Derek. My baby brother, Teddy, and sister-in-law, Haley, have the sweetest toddler who cheerfully darted from one embrace to another with bobbling pigtails in her hair. Auntie Holly eagerly volunteered to babysit little Evelyn while we got a chance to catch up with each person on how life has been. Uncle Matt happily gave us his time by playing a photo reel from family vacations taken from his trusty “old-school” camera. Mom and Dad had wonderful stories to share about life in Vermont while playing fetch with their puppy, Piper, who loves to play with her bouncing pink ball.

After a delicious Thanksgiving meal prepared by Grandma Berger, we shared a little holiday cheer by creating a Candyland of miniature gingerbread houses. We each paired up with a pre-assembled gingerbread kit that came with piping bags of frosting and tiny bags of candy decorations. The frosting construction was a somewhat complicated process to coat the sweet glue to each wall of the house while also stabilizing the pieces together until they firmed up.  There were a few mishaps along the way and bits of frosting everywhere as we managed to build charming homes with holly and ivy.

While building our gingerbread houses we realized that some of the decorating caused these fragile masterpieces to buckle from the weight of squishing candy pieces onto their already unstable exteriors. Just when we thought we had delivered a beautiful candy home, the walls would slowly slide and collapse to create the perfect sunroof for any Gingerbread Man. We tried to save a few of these misfortunes and laughed off the others. I think it was more fun actually creating these gingerbread houses than what their final appearance displayed! We cherished the warm afternoon of gingerbread-making and the walk to Georgette’s coffee shop afterward for tea and coffee with Uncle Matt tagging along on his bike. It was the perfect afternoon for this family holiday on Thanksgiving. 

“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” 

-Karl Barth